The Little Raptor!

The Shikra is so far the smallest bird of prey I've encountered when compared to the eagles and hawks which is the same family it belongs to. But they are nevertheless, equally graceful in their perch.

This one had perched on a branch right by the side of the road and the dull light was making it difficult to get good shutter speed. This was shot with a 1.4x TC on the 600mm at 1/30s shutter and I never expected the result to be this good looking. The blown out areas around the bird are because of the sky visible through the leaves in the background, but there was no way to avoid that.

Tech Specs:
Canon 7D + Canon 600mm with 1.4x TC
Shot at 840mm, 1/30s, f5.6, ISO 400